


Home to Roost

by solomonara



Series: Chaos Theory [7]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Recklessness, Rooftop Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22425679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solomonara/pseuds/solomonara
Summary: Dick hears that Deathstroke has a contract in Bludhaven and decides to step in.
Series: Chaos Theory [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/970407
Comments: 15
Kudos: 110





	Home to Roost

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to [DragonSorceress22](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22) for beta-ing all these little chaos tidbits!

Deathstroke was off-balance and Dick was not, and wasn't that a nice change of pace. Of course, Dick had started this fight by flinging a motorcycle at Slade's head, which to be fair would leave _most_ people off-balance.

Then again, Slade wasn't most people. It took Dick all of thirty seconds – an eternity when fighting, and two eternities when fighting an enhanced supersoldier – to figure out the real reason Slade was fighting so conservatively: Slade didn't know what to expect and was trying to figure it out.

That was fair enough. Dick wasn't really sure what to expect either, if he was being honest. He'd just been spinning his wheels for the past few days in Gotham while Babs recovered, hovering cautiously on the periphery of the manor and cave, and had, purely by chance, intercepted intel that Slade was in Bludhaven. Dick had grabbed his bike, borrowed a few tricks from the Batcave, and the next thing he knew he was doing a wheelie off a roof and sending the bike careening into Deathstroke's makeshift sniper perch.

Slade had dodged, mostly. But now it was clear he wasn't sure whether Dick was about to rend the fabric of the universe fighting him or… not. Dick's current status was largely unknown even in the hero community – he'd resisted even Bruce's attempts to prod at his limits and abilities after Zatanna's little sealing ritual, so there was no way Slade could know he wasn't still capable of taking a person apart atom by atom (whether intentionally or not).

"Hesitation's a good look on you, Slade," Dick said while ducking a feint and also managing to dodge the real blow that it masked. He let his smile go a little manic, then instantly dropped it because it felt too comfortable.

"Just wouldn't want our little reunion to be over too soon," Slade replied easily. He wasn't even slightly out of breath, and wasn't so busy analyzing Dick that he couldn't banter. It was possible this fight wasn't going as well as Dick thought. He dropped a few smoke bombs and let himself fade into the murk they produced. The only edge he had here was psychological, and he intended to lean on it.

"Bat tricks?" Slade wondered out loud. "So the rumors that you're back in his pocket are true. That means you have to play nice."

Dick jabbed Slade in the kidney with an escrima stick, the electric current turned up. Slade grunted but didn't seem otherwise inconvenienced, his armor taking most of the hit. Dick hooked his ankle, intending to take Slade to the roof, but Slade went down easily into a backward roll, curling his legs in and then jabbing out to launch Dick over his head as he completed the roll and came smoothly to his feet. Dick stuck his own landing after being thrown, skidding only slightly.

The smoke screen was already thinning. Slade's discarded rifle was by Dick's heel, and Dick's back was to the office building he'd been aiming into when Dick had interrupted him.

"I get the feeling this is personal," Slade said. He drew his sword.

"You know it is. You shouldn't have come here."

Slade shrugged. "I've done you the courtesy of avoiding Gotham. How the hell should I have known you'd be hovering around here?"

"How about you just consider the entire east coast mine going forward?" Dick suggested. "Not that it'll matter once you're locked up."

"Ah. Locked up, is it? That's a nice change from last time," Slade said. "Interesting."

"So glad you're entertained," Dick growled, closing the distance between them. It was an odd move for him, getting into close quarters with someone larger and stronger than he was, but he was aiming for unpredictability.

Slade defended, blocking strike after strike, and Dick was just starting to wonder why he wasn't going on the offensive when a silenced shot zipped past his ear. He broke engagement, backflipping away immediately. Slade had drawn and fired faster than Dick could track, and Dick certainly hadn't been expecting that move; close as they'd been, Dick would have noticed him pulling a gun with the intent to kill or injure him. Shooting _past_ Dick had allowed for some stealth in the draw, but what was the point of a warning shot? He had to know it would make Dick back off, but Slade had the advantage in close quarters.

"Your aim is off," Dick informed him.

"Is it?"

Dick went cold. He couldn't help glancing over his shoulder.

The office building across the street was calm, with nothing changed except that one window now had a small, round hole in it, and one man was now slumped across his desk where he'd been working late.

Dick snapped his head back to Slade, who had put away the gun and was turning to leave. "It's been fun, kid. And informative."

Dick snarled and ran full tilt at Slade, who just had time to brace himself before Dick took them both over the edge of the roof. It was a high rise, so they had lots of time to fall; time enough for Slade to realize that Dick had not brought a grapple, or if he had, he wasn't intending to fire it.

"Kid—" Slade started, the wind roaring over his words. "If you're planning on pulling a Peter Pan, this would be the time."

Dick just squeezed tighter, his arms wrapped around Slade's torso while Slade swore and they tumbled through the air. Slade shoved at him, trying to reach a line of his own. He finally managed it, almost too late, and fired a bolt into the building rushing past them.

Their fall ceased abruptly and almost dislodged Dick since he was slightly distracted. By the time they burst through a window into an empty cubicle farm, crashing through a few flimsy partitions on the way, Dick had managed to close the restraints he'd brought around Slade's wrists.

When they finally slid to a halt, Dick was sprawled on the floor next to Slade, covered in a thousand cuts and a bit of rug burn; perhaps something more substantial than jeans and a leather jacket would have been a good idea for this particular outing.

Slade was already on his feet, towering over Dick, intimidating even with his hands bound behind his back.

"What the fuck was that, kid?" Slade growled. "Based on your performance on the roof, I'd've bet good money you'd been de-powered somehow." He put a boot to Dick's shoulder and shoved him over onto his back, eyeing the blood welling up in his wounds. "What exactly was your plan there?"

Dick pushed the button that powered the restraints and they zapped Slade with way more current than Dick's escrima sticks had managed. Slade gritted his teeth and stepped down hard on Dick's shoulder, but Dick could see he'd felt that one. He twisted his legs around to sweep Slade's out from under him, and Slade actually failed to recover. He stumbled to one knee and Dick spun to his feet and kept spinning to strike Slade across the temple with his heel.

"The plan was to win," Dick said. "I'll be dropping you off with the police on my way out of town."

Slade looked up at him for a moment, and then started laughing. "The Bludhaven PD? Really?"

"You'll be transferred to Blackgate soon enough. Unless Batman has something to say to you."

"Yeah, yeah sure," Slade said, mirth still evident in his voice. "You got me fair and square. Let's go then."

Dick narrowed his eyes at him. "What?"

"What do you mean, what? You don't have a prison that can hold me outside of Gotham, you don't have the means to transport me that far, you don't seem to have any back up out here, and this is _Bludhaven_. I'll be out in a day if I ever even see the inside of a cell. Seriously, kid, what's the real plan?"

Dick frowned and hit the button again.

  


* * *

  


Slade had been wrong. He was not out of custody in a day. It took an hour.

He left the police station in civvies with an older gentleman, shaking hands with the chief of police on his way out. Dick watched from a rooftop across the street, arms crossed and his scowl so intense that Slade must have sensed it, because he paused before getting into a sleek black car and turned his gaze upward, pinpointing Dick's location exactly.

Slade smirked, gave him a little salute, and ducked into the car. It slid off into traffic soundlessly.

Dick watched the chief of police go back inside the station. And then he made a decision. He'd been planning on staying a little closer to home, anyway.


End file.
